DC3 Challenge

The DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge is an annual contest, launched in 2006, that allows for public competition to solve many challenging forensic issues. Each team is given a window of approximately eight months to determine solutions to as many of the issues as possible. The total solutions and efforts are graded to determine the winning entry. The winning team is awarded with a paid trip to the Defense Cyber Crime Conference.

The purpose of the challenge is to promote and generate interest in digital forensics; establish relationships within the digital forensics community; address the major obstacles and dilemmas confronting digital forensics investigators and examiners; and develop new tools, techniques, and methodologies.

2007 DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge

The 2007 Challenge introduced new topics, such as: Bitlocker cracking and recovering data from destroyed USB thumb drives. With 126 teams competing, and 11 entries submitted, a team of students from the Air Force Institute of Technology won the event.

2008 DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge

Beginning with the 2008 Challenge, the contest was broken into four skill levels: Novice, Skilled, Expert, and Genius. New challenges included: detection of malicious software, partition recovery, file header reconstruction, Skype analysis, and foreign text identification and translation. With 199 teams competing, and 20 entries submitted, the competition was won by Chris Eagle and Tim Vidas of the Naval Postgraduate School. The 2008 Challenge also marked the first time that all results were released publicly.

2009 DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge

A total of 1,153 teams from 49 states and 61 countries applied to enter the 2009 DC3 Challenge. This is an increase from 223 teams from 40 states and 26 countries entered in 2008. Of that number of teams in 2009, 44 teams submitted solution packets back to FX for grading.

2009 Sponsors

SANS Institute for the U.S. High School and U.S. Undergraduate prizes

The SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security (SANS) Institute is the most trusted and by far the largest source for information security training and certification in the world. It also develops, maintains, and makes available at no cost, the largest collection of research documents about various aspects of information security, and it operates the Internet's early warning system - Internet Storm Center. SANS is also a sponsor in the Center for Strategic & International Studies US Cyber Challenge.

IMPACT for the Non-U.S. prize

The International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Threats (IMPACT) and the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center have partnered to provide a Digital Forensic Challenge opportunity for non-U.S. entries. This opportunity will provide an international aspect to a previously U.S.-based event and allow additional insight into global methods to fight cyber crime.

2009 Winners' Circle

With the four available prizes for 2009, the official winners of the Challenger were:

Prize

Team

Points

DC3 Prize (U.S. Winner)

Little Bobby Tables

1,772

SANS Prize - High School (U.S.)

pwnage

1,309

SANS Prize - Undergraduate (U.S.)

WilmU

1,732

IMPACT Prize (International & Overall)

DFRC

2,014

2010 DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge

A total of 1010 teams from 51 states and 53 countries applied to enter the 2010 DC3 Challenge. This is a 12% decrease in team applications from 1,153 teams from 49 states and 61 countries entered in 2009. Of that number of teams in 2010, 70 teams submitted solution packets back to FX for grading. This is a 59% increase in the number of submissions returned to the DC3 Challenge from 2009 with 44 submissions returned.

2010 Sponsors

New in 2010, several new sponsors provided additional prizes to allow for multiple winners:

SANS Institute for the U.S. High School and U.S. Undergraduate prizes

The SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security (SANS) Institute is the most trusted and by far the largest source for information security training and certification in the world. It also develops, maintains, and makes available at no cost, the largest collection of research documents about various aspects of information security, and it operates the Internet's early warning system - Internet Storm Center. SANS is also a sponsor in the Center for Strategic & International Studies US Cyber Challenge.

IMPACT for the Non-U.S. prize

The International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber-Threats (IMPACT) and the Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center have partnered to provide a Digital Forensic Challenge opportunity for non-U.S. entries. This opportunity will provide an international aspect to a previously U.S.-based event and allow additional insight into global methods to fight cyber crime.

The winner(s) of the International category from an IMPACT-member country will be eligible to fly to Malaysia for a tour of the IMPACT facility in Cyberjaya, official presentation of a commemorative plaque and potential grants of EC-Council and SANS courses.

EC-Council for US Government, US Military, Commercial, and Civilian individual prizes

The International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants (EC-Council) is a world leader in Information Security Certification and Training. With over 450 training locations for it’s information security courses in over 60 countries, it is a world leader in technical training and certification for the Information Security community. It is a trusted source for vendor neutral Information Security training solutions. EC-Council and DC3 have partnered to expand prize awards opportunities for our DC3 Digital Forensic Challenge. EC-Council will sponsor the categories of:

U.S. Government

U.S. Military

Civilian for all U.S. and non-U.S. entries

Commercial teams for all U.S. and non-U.S. entries

The winning teams of the Civilian, Commercial, Government, and Military categories will receive the following prizes for up to 4 members from the EC-Council:

A Plaque

A pass to the Hacker Halted Conference to winners worth $1799 each

Any free EC-Council electronic courseware of choice for the winners on Ethical Hacking, Computer Forensic, Security Analysis or Disaster Recovery worth $650 each

The Johns Hopkins/CyberWatch (JHU/CW) winning team will be recognized as the academic leader at the U.S. Community College level. The winning team members will also be presented with an award to mark their outstanding achievement.

UK Cyber Security Challenge

Cyber Security Challenge UK and DC3 have partnered together to provide an opportunity for teams consisting of all UK citizens residing in the UK.
The UK Challenge winning team will be offered two prizes from Cyber Security Challenge UK:

Two weeks at the new UK Cyber Security Academy, which develops the skills required of next-generation cyber security specialists, including courses on digital forensics, threat and risk management, cyber-crime, and emerging security technologies.

Invitations to take part in the Cyber Security Challenge UK’s masterclass challenge to compete against other successful contestants from other UK Challenge competitions.

2010 Winners' Circle

Prize

Team

Points

DC3 Prize (U.S. Winner)

Williams Twin Forensics

1,470

SANS Prize - High School (U.S.)

Crash Override

361

SANS Prize - Undergraduate (U.S.)

Team Name

1,129

IMPACT Prize (International)

DFRC

3,297

EC-COUNCIL Prize (US GOVT)

LBPDCCID

409

EC-COUNCIL Prize (US Military)

Batcheej

88

EC-COUNCIL Prize (Commercial)

Little Tree

1,791

EC-COUNCIL Prize (Civilian)

William Twins Forensics

1,470

JHU Prize (Community College)

PWNsauce

84

UK Cyber Security Challenge

Mine Inc

352

2011 DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge

The 2011 Challenge, currently underway, has more than doubled its sponsors. Sponsor announcements will be rolled out in the near future. As of 11 May 2011, 779 teams from 44 countries (including the United States) have registered since the challenge kickoff on 15 December 2010.